The new G5s: Built for XSan.

One of the things that struck me when I was looking at the specs for the new G5s was how well-suited the new G5s are, across the entire line, for plugging into an XSan system. With the extra gigabit port to plug into the private metadata network that XSan requires and the fast bus speeds, the only thing you’d need to add to the stock build to integrate it directly into an existing XSan setup is a fibre-channel card and the XSan software.

With the ability to cram up to 16 gigs of memory into the new G5s and the upgraded video cards, the G5’s are attractive to both the entertainment and television industries who need both exceptional horsepower and large amounts of memory to work with uncompressed video. In turn, these companies are embracing XSan as a way to share large amounts (in the two or three digit terabyte range) of storage among an entire video editing suite. By producing a box well-suited for both XSan integration and high-end editing, I think Apple’s making a move to increase its market share in those industries while building on the gains the company has made with Shake, Final Cut Pro, SoundTrack Pro and Logic Pro.